Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Over the past year at Second Nature I’ve been coordinating the “Higher Education Adaptation Committee” – a group of college and university administrators, climate scientists, sustainability professionals and educators exploring higher education’s role and responsibility in ensuring that society is prepared to weather the storms of climate change.

On Monday at the Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference at the University of Maryland, I co-facilitated a session on this topic with David Caruso, President of Antioch University New England (who serves on the Adaptation Committee).

It proved to be a timely event. On the day of the session, temperatures in New Hampshire were expected to reach the 90s (in April!). It’s been a warm spring all over the northeastern US. And it was a warm winter. Not really a winter at all in many
places. Here, the mild weather doesn’t feel all that bad. But if you understand the implications of
climate disruption, it’s pretty horrifying.

I won’t run through the usual list of climate impacts – but
here are just a few of recent headlines:

The following video does a great job of explaining how increases in the global average temperatures (global warming) drives all kinds of complex climactic changes - what's become known as "global weirding":

On May 5, 2012, the global network of concerned citizens
under the 350.org banner will be “connecting the dots” between
these impacts of climate change and what they represent in terms of economic
damage, ecological destruction and human suffering.

To minimize this damage, we need to continue to create better
ways of doing things. We need to
eliminate our greenhouse gas emissions and land-use changes that are driving
climate change.

We also have a moral obligation to prepare our society the
best we can for the impacts of climate change that are already happening and
will continue to happen based on changes already “locked in” from past
emissions.

Higher education has a particularly critical role - and responsibility - with regard to climate preparedness, which brings me back to our conference session:

I provided a quick overview of the Adaptation Committee’s work and the
report we published in November – Higher Education’s Role in Adapting to a
Changing Climate – which
provides a high-level look at what colleges and university are and should
be doing through education, research, community engagement, and campus operations
to prepare society for the impacts of climate disruption.

Dr. Caruso spoke about the role of presidents and senior
administrators in this process – emphasizing the need to engage governing
boards in the process. He also provided
compelling examples about how Antioch is weaving climate mitigation and adaptation
through cross cutting activities that encompass curriculum, research, campus
operations, and community engagement.

With the average tenure of a college president around five
years, it’s important to ensure continuity and long-term commitment via the
trustees. In most cases, it will likely
require a few years of persistent and skillful leadership from the president to
really integrate this understanding and perspective throughout the Board. But Trustees need to understand the risks
climate change poses to their campus – they have the fiduciary responsibility
for the institution. If they don’t
understand these risks, they aren’t fulfilling that responsibility.

The economic damages to campuses from
stemming from climate impacts can be enormous (for example, see "Learning from Disaster" (pdf) - a report by UNCF on the impacts of Hurricane Katrina).
More important than the costs, they pose serious health and safety risks to the
students, faculty and staff. These could
be direct impacts from extreme weather events on campus, or indirect from
disruptions to agricultural production, supply chains, or critical
infrastructure.

Beyond the responsibility to their own campuses and
constituents, colleges and universities have a responsibility to all of society
to provide the education and research needed to prepare for climate impacts.

During our session, we engaged the group in a dialogue about
what was happening on their campuses, and around ways to teach students in all
disciplines not just about climate
adaptation, but for adaptation – so
that it’s not just climate scientists and ecologists who understand the
importance of adapting to these changes, but also economists, policy-makers,
city planners, journalists, teachers, and so on.

We spoke about how low-income communities and communities of
color are often more vulnerable in the face of climate impacts, and are often
hit “first and worst” by them. This
dynamics brings up important social justice issues that must be front-of-mind
in this work.

While many universities are conducting important research to
help communities in their regions understand the expected impacts and how to
respond to them, more comprehensive approaches are needed to ensure the level
of response that this challenge demands.

Monday, April 09, 2012

The colleges and universities that are finalists for the 2012 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards have been invited to create videos, which are now part of a voting contest, hosted by Planet Forward. To be eligible, institutions must be a part of the ACUPCC network, and up to date with their public reporting. The winner of the voting contest won't necessarily win one of the Climate Leadership Awards, but will have their video publicized in national media outlets.

I'll be posting one of the videos each day. Here's the video from the Spelman College:

Sunday, April 08, 2012

The colleges and universities that are finalists for the 2012 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards have been invited to create videos, which are now part of a voting contest, hosted by Planet Forward. To be eligible, institutions must be a part of the ACUPCC network, and up to date with their public reporting. The winner of the voting contest won't necessarily win one of the Climate Leadership Awards, but will have their video publicized in national media outlets.

I'll be posting one of the videos each day. Here's the video from the Chandler Gilbert Community College:

Saturday, April 07, 2012

The colleges and universities that are finalists for the 2012 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards have been invited to create videos, which are now part of a voting contest, hosted by Planet Forward. To be eligible, institutions must be a part of the ACUPCC network, and up to date with their public reporting. The winner of the voting contest won't necessarily win one of the Climate Leadership Awards, but will have their video publicized in national media outlets.

I'll be posting one of the videos each day. Here's the video from the Glendale Community College:

Friday, April 06, 2012

The colleges and universities that are finalists for the 2012 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards have been invited to create videos, which are now part of a voting contest, hosted by Planet Forward. To be eligible, institutions must be a part of the ACUPCC network, and up to date with their public reporting. The winner of the voting contest won't necessarily win one of the Climate Leadership Awards, but will have their video publicized in national media outlets.

I'll be posting one of the videos each day. Here's the video from the Allegheny College:

Thursday, April 05, 2012

The colleges and universities that are finalists for the 2012 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards have been invited to create videos, which are now part of a voting contest, hosted by Planet Forward. To be eligible, institutions must be a part of the ACUPCC network, and up to date with their public reporting. The winner of the voting contest won't necessarily win one of the Climate Leadership Awards, but will have their video publicized in national media outlets.

I'll be posting one of the videos each day. Here's the video from the FGCU:

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

The colleges and universities that are finalists for the 2012 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards have been invited to create videos, which are now part of a voting contest, hosted by Planet Forward. To be eligible, institutions must be a part of the ACUPCC network, and up to date with their public reporting. The winner of the voting contest won't necessarily win one of the Climate Leadership Awards, but will have their video publicized in national media outlets.

I'll be posting one of the videos each day. Here's the video from the ASU:

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

The colleges and universities that are finalists for the 2012 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards have been invited to create videos, which are now part of a voting contest, hosted by Planet Forward. To be eligible, institutions must be a part of the ACUPCC network, and up to date with their public reporting. The winner of the voting contest won't necessarily win one of the Climate Leadership Awards, but will have their video publicized in national media outlets.

I'll be posting one of the videos each day. Here's the video from the Austin Community College:

Monday, April 02, 2012

The colleges and universities that are finalists for the 2012 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards have been invited to create videos, which are now part of a voting contest, hosted by Planet Forward. To be eligible, institutions must be a part of the ACUPCC network, and up to date with their public reporting. The winner of the voting contest won't necessarily win one of the Climate Leadership Awards, but will have their video publicized in national media outlets.

I'll be posting one of the videos each day. Here's the video from the University of South Florida:

Sunday, April 01, 2012

The colleges and universities that are finalists for the 2012 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards have been invited to create videos, which are now part of a voting contest, hosted by Planet Forward. To be eligible, institutions must be a part of the ACUPCC network, and up to date with their public reporting. The winner of the voting contest won't necessarily win one of the Climate Leadership Awards, but will have their video publicized in national media outlets.

I'll be posting one of the videos each day. Here's the video from SUNY Upstate Medical University: